Jerry Lewis had to cancel a charity concert in Sydney, Australia last Friday due to illness. The 85-year-old comic legend was briefly hospitalized — he was "overtired," his publicist said — and then released…
She said Lewis has had a "ridiculous" schedule in recent months. He has been flying back and forth from Las Vegas to New York, casting for the stage production of "The Nutty Professor," which he intends to release in January.
We are, as ever, intrigued with the constant approach of the stage musical version of The Nutty Professor, which Jerry is said to be directing himself with book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes and a score by Marvin Hamlisch. Release in January where? Certainly not on Broadway…not without some inkling this far in advance of it dickering for theater space. That is not easy to secure on the Great White Way these days.
The more likely scenario would be to open the show at some regional theater for a tryout/workshop. Jerry used to mention the Old Globe in San Diego, which would be an ideal place except that it's pretty much booked a year in advance. They could certainly find some theater somewhere in this country that would be eager to have such a show but the fact that no venue has been named does make one think that's just talk. I also don't see any mention of The Nutty Professor casting on any of the websites that list such things. The ones that mention it at all have it in the long list of shows that claim to be aiming for Broadway and they say "2010-2011," which obviously ain't gonna happen. Most shows on that list won't happen. (The semi-official website for Rupert Holmes mentions many of his upcoming projects but even it doesn't have a word about The Nutty Professor.)
I hope The Nutty Professor happens. It's a pretty good idea for a musical and I also have a natural tendency to root for anyone in their eighties to have a new, successful accomplishment. I'd like that to seem possible when I hit that decade. I just wish the announcements about this show, most of which are at least two years old and thought it would be playing Manhattan by now, related a little more to reality.
More imminent is Jerry's upcoming (and final, they say) appearance on the annual Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, which will run a scant six hours on Labor Day. The rumor is that the shift to a shorter length was done without consulting Jerry and that his reaction when he heard was, "Oh, that's good. Now I can host the whole thing myself." He was then told (we hear) that they didn't want him to host at all…just to come on and make a brief appearance. Is this so? It's starting to look that way. The latest word is that Jerry will appear only in the final ten minutes. No news on who'll host the other five hours and fifty minutes.
Lewis will come on, I'm told, make a few remarks to pass the torch and he'll sing his signature "You'll Never Walk Alone." I find it hard to believe he could say whatever will be on his mind that evening in ten minutes. Ten hours, maybe. I have friends who are already thinking that putting a volatile, unpredictable guy on a live show for ten minutes when he surely has a wide array of rampaging emotion…well, this may not be a great idea. That's from the producers' standpoint. For an audience, it may be really, really exciting.